Invensys APV is delighted to announce its certification to the prestigious ISO 9001:2000 standard for its facility based in Crawley, West Sussex.

Invensys APV is delighted to announce its certification to the prestigious ISO 9001:2000 standard for its facility based in Crawley, West Sussex. Basing the management of all business activities on the principles of the new ISO standard is helping APV improve efficiency throughout the company in order to deliver improved customer satisfaction. According to Business Improvement Manager, Paul Morley, "We are delighted to have achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification.

However, this is certainly not the end of the process.

We are committed to continually monitoring and improving our business processes, as necessary, as we continue to strive to become the world-class supplier of choice to our chosen markets".

The program is fully supported by the APV management team.

"ISO 9001:2000 provided a set of values that ideally matched our business ambition", commented Managing Director, Steve Davies.

I am very grateful for the efforts of a large number of employees, who have contributed to improvement actions over the past few months".

Significant effort has been invested in communicating the principles of ISO 9001:2000 to all employees of APV in Crawley.

This was aimed at helping them understand what is required both individually and as a group, as they work together in support of a philosophy that focuses on the need to continuously improve the quality of service to customers.

Specialising in engineering consultancy and establishing rebuilding and optimising pharmaceutical production facilities, the company has a new Swedish subsidiary located in Huddinge south of Stockholm.

Specialising in engineering consultancy and establishing, rebuilding and optimising pharmaceutical production facilities, the company has set up a Swedish subsidiary located in Huddinge south of Stockholm. The decision to establish NNE Sweden AB was triggered by the increase in turnover in Sweden, where NNE has recorded sales running into double-digit millions (DDK). 'The new offices in Huddinge gives us an even better platform for serving existing and potential customers in Sweden,' said Kay Stendevad, managing director of NNE Sweden.

'We are both local and international players.

We aim to build an independent Swedish organisation focusing on local customers.

Coupled with our international experiences, our extensive network means we can meet all our clients' needs for consulting and engineering services.

Our skills cover a breadth and depth of disciplines'.

The NNE Swedish client base includes AstraZeneca, Pfizer/Pharmacia, Ferring, Novozymes Biopharma and Polypeptide.

The services most in demand are in the fields of automation, GMP and validation, process operations and clean room technology.

NNE Sweden AB has hired five engineers to date, all with experience from the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.

Further recruitment is underway.

The Huddinge premises will be officially inaugurated at a reception on 9 October 2003.

NNE has more than 80 years' experience as a supplier of consultancy and engineering services and process plants for the international pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries.

With a staff of more than 1,000, NNE is the largest Nordic consultancy in this segment.

NNE A/S is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk A/S.

AMEC has been appointed to carry out the initial engineering design for the offsite and utility facilities on a USD1.5Bn coal-to-chemical production complex in north west China.

AMEC, the international project management and services company, has been appointed by the Shenhua Ningxia Coal Group (SNCG) to carry out the initial engineering design for the offsite and utility facilities on a USD1.5 billion coal-to-chemical production complex in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in north west China. AMEC has been working as the SNCG project management contractor for the overall facility since early 2006 and this latest award builds on the close and successful relationship developed with SNCG during that time. Working from their Shanghai offices, AMEC engineers will provide the basic engineering and design needed to define and integrate all the common, site-wide systems required to service the six individual process units within the facility.

These systems include power and steam distribution, water systems, flare and fire fighting, interconnecting pipework, air and gas, site-wide instrumentation, control, electrical systems, loading/unloading facilities and storage.

The new facility, which is designed to produce 540,000 tonnes of polypropylene per year and which will include a coal gasifier plant, a methanol and methanol-to-propylene unit and a polypropylene unit, is scheduled to be completed in early 2009.

Polypropylene is a chemical product usually derived from oil refining and ethylene processing but the project will use coal as the feedstock, which will come from large reserves in the Ningxia area.

'The award and successful execution of this contract will further strengthen the AMEC expertise as the leading contractor in coal based petrochemical facilities,' said Ross Gibson, president of the AMEC China operations covering Natural Resources.

'We have the skills and resources to respond to the challenge and look forward to contributing to the success of this important and prestigious project'.

Foster Wheeler has been awarded a FEED/PMC contract for a new petrochemicals complex in Saudi Arabia, to produce polybutylene terephthalate at Yanbu.

Foster Wheeler Energy, part of the F-W Global Engineering and Construction Group, has been awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) and project management consultancy (PMC) services contract by Osos Petrochemicals Company (in formation) for a planned new petrochemicals complex to produce polybutylene terephthalate at Yanbu, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In executing the FEED, the Foster Wheeler role will also include the basic design for the utilities and offsites of the project. The Company will provide PMC services up to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) award and will be involved in the preparation of a project cost estimate, issuance of an invitation to bid for the EPC phase, evaluation of EPC bids and assistance with EPC award.

The new petrochemicals complex comprises four licensed technology process units plus associated utilities, offsites and common facilities.

The complex will produce 60,000 tonnes per annum of polybutylene terephthalate, a plastic used as an insulator in the electrical and electronics industries.

'We are pleased to assist Osos Petrochemicals in realizing its first petrochemicals complex, a key element of their strategic plan to build added-value petrochemical derivatives in the Kingdom,' said Steve Davies, chairman and chief executive officer, Foster Wheeler Energy.

'Foster Wheeler is playing a key role in the development of the petrochemicals sector in Saudi Arabia and is currently managing over USD20 billion of petrochemical project investments for Saudi Arabian clients'.

'Osos Petrochemicals has selected Foster Wheeler after proper evaluation and looks forward to building a relationship as we develop our petrochemicals investment in Saudi Arabia,' commented Mubarak A Al-Khater, managing director of the Osos Petrochemicals Complex.

A team from the Foster-Wheeler UK subsidiary Foster Wheeler Energy, part of the Global Engineering and Construction Group, has won the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board ACTIVE Cup.

Foster Wheeler announce that a team from its UK subsidiary Foster Wheeler Energy, part of its Global Engineering and Construction Group, has won the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) ACTIVE Cup. A record field of ten teams from the UK's leading engineering and project management companies took part in this year's competition. Foster Wheeler has participated in the competition since its inception ten years ago and this is the sixth time that the company has won the award.

The popular ACTIVE (Achieving Competitiveness Through Innovation and Value Enhancement) Cup is an annual competition-based learning event in project management.

The ACTIVE initiative was launched in 1996 with the aim of improving the performance of capital projects in the process industries and encouraging the sharing of good practice.

The ACTIVE Cup uses sophisticated technology to test teams from companies within the industry on their ability to put the ACTIVE principles to work when managing a substantial project.

The annual weekend event, sponsored by the ECITB, a UK organization, is based around a dynamic and interactive computer simulation managed by Cranfield University School of Management in the UK.

Teams are set the challenge of project managing the construction, from inception to client acceptance, of an 'environmental monitoring station' located in a remote area.

'The project is executed over a 20 to 25 'week' simulated schedule, with each week lasting 15 to 20 minutes,' said Matthew Morley, leader of the winning team, and proposal manager at Foster Wheeler Energy.

'The time pressures created by the simulation required rapid and accurate progress assessment and decision-making with respect to equipment and material procurement, workforce allocation and plant hire deployment.

The competition judges assessed team performance against actual project performance, namely achieving the highest profit against a fixed-price, lump-sum contract, the ability to meet both schedule and profit forecasts at key stages throughout the project and the continuous application of the ACTIVE principles'.

'Foster Wheeler is proud of its project management and project execution expertise and proven track record in 'real life',' said Steve Davies, chairman and chief executive officer, Foster Wheeler Energy: 'It is very pleasing to see a Foster Wheeler team demonstrate these same skills and apply the same commitment and professionalism in this prestigious competition'.

'The ECITB ACTIVE Cup allows us to simulate the life-cycle of a major project within a single weekend,' commented David Edwards, chief executive, ECITB: 'This, and the competition element, puts the pressure on and intensifies the learning experience.

The teams are tested across the spectrum of project management activity, including negotiating with clients, suppliers and bankers.

In winning, the Foster Wheeler team demonstrated a thorough understanding and application of the ACTIVE principles'.